Closet, Storage, and Office Organizers

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Well-organized closets, storage areas, and office spaces can help you save time, open up your living quarters, and restore beauty and order to your home. Follow our easy ideas for storing anything and everything in your home.

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Color-Coded Clipboards

Just carrying a clipboard makes you feel as though you have your act together; hang a bunch on the wall and you really will -- with an instant filing system. Paint clips different colors, and then categorize in a way that works for your household (by family member, priority, due date, and so forth). As bills and other paperwork flow in, just clip them to the corresponding board.

Peel-Off Labels

Unlike traditional sticker labels, washi (Japanese paper) tape peels off without tearing, so folders can be used and reused. And it comes in dozens of hues for a satisfying number of color-coding possibilities.

Clothing Labels

Your grandmother may have sewn your mom's name into her summer camp clothes; perhaps your mom used iron-on tags. The evolution continues with these adhesive labels: Just write your child's name with a permanent-ink pen, and press it on. The labels will last through at least 20 washes.

Well-organized closets, storage areas, and office spaces can help you save time, open up your living quarters, and restore beauty and order to your home. Follow our easy ideas for storing anything and everything in your home.

Don't let your matching sheets get lost in the linen closet. Use this simple trick: Tuck a sheet set inside one of its pillowcases, and then stack according to size (twin, full, queen, king) or by the room you use the sheets in (master bedroom, guest room.)

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Tool Drawer Organizer

Line a drawer organizer with silhouettes of your tools so you’ll always know where your monkey wrench goes (and when it goes missing). Just print our tool clip art onto sticker paper and attach to the drawer.

Multicord Organizer

A tangle of cords behind a TV or desk is enough to make you short-circuit, especially when you need to move components around. Know your task lamp from your hard drive by clipping on these tags, which feature icons to identify each cord's origin. If you want to customize the clips, they can also be labeled by hand.

Bookcases + Door = Desk

Doors make great desktops: They’re inexpensive, roomy, and readily available in a variety of sizes. For the legs, you could use sawhorses, but low-rise bookcases offer the added benefit of extra storage. Thirty-inch square bookcases are the ideal height for a desk and are the same width as a standard-size door. Prime and paint the bookcases and door in the same color. To give the desk a finished, cohesive look, add a few details: Line the back of the shelves with marbled paper (secured with double-sided tape) and hot-glue a ribbon around the edge of the desktop.

Photography: Formula Z/S

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Stairwell Storage

If the stairs leading to your cellar are wide enough, the wall beside them can be transformed into a pantry for items you use regularly, such as canned goods and other kitchen supplies.

Have your local home store or lumberyard cut one-by-fours in decreasing lengths (use the longest shelves at the top of the stairs, the shorter ones near the bottom). Give them a coat of semigloss paint to make them easy to wipe clean. Then hang them (these are spaced about a foot apart) with metal L brackets.

Magazine holders are good for keeping old issues in order, but their handleless backs make it difficult to access them when you need to. For a permanent fix, attach a sash lift on the back of a holder.

Broom Hangers

Many people store mops and brooms by standing them in a corner, but this can cause broom straw to bend and mop heads to mildew. Using tool hooks (sold at hardware stores), hang them with their "business ends" up. A dustpan, too, should be kept off the floor; hang it from the hole in its handle.

If you don't have a spare room, just dedicate a corner to creativity. This compact cupboard keeps all your supplies in one spot, so you won't have to search for paper or paint when a crafty mood strikes.

Protect your dearest ornaments from damage as you pack up after the holidays this year. Cut a piece of corrugated cardboard to line the bottom of a plastic storage bin. Then use a hot-glue gun to attach paper cups to the cardboard. Wrap ornaments in tissue paper, and place in cups. Then stack cardboard-and-cup flats inside the container. Store smaller ornaments in egg cartons.

Leftover Paint Storage

Transfer leftover paint from large cans to small airtight resealable tubs. Make sure to affix a label to the container; note the color and the room where the paint was used.

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Umbrella Hooks

An umbrella should be easy to get to when you head out the door. These hooks prove to be a bit more nimble than an overcrowded stand, and don't take up coveted hall space. Mount broom hooks inside a closet door; hang high enough so umbrellas don't touch the floor and far enough apart so handles don't knock.